


Hexes, Shadows and That Sour Feeling in the Back of your Mind.

by AllosaurusJei



Category: DCU, Teen Titans - All Media Types
Genre: Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-10
Updated: 2019-01-12
Packaged: 2019-10-07 21:50:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17373911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllosaurusJei/pseuds/AllosaurusJei
Summary: Raven Roth - Adventurer, Hero, Rookie Demon Goddess.She's a vastly powerful and capable young woman. But in a world still very on edge from a near-apocalypse, she needs some extralegal hands to help her hunt down some deranged psychopaths under the eyes of an overzealous League of Adventurers. It's gonna be a dirty and dangerous job, one that'll need all of fortune and fate to turn against her slippery quarry...Just as well she knows a certain someone who specialises in ruining fortunes.A DCU adventure in a D&D inspired world.





	1. Prologue: A Troubled Trance

**Author's Note:**

> So this story takes place in a D&D 5E setting. Using the core mechanics, with a whole bunch of homebrew finagling to align with various superpowers, species and other conventions of the DCU and make them work in a less modern-day fantasy setting.
> 
> I'm having a lot of fun drafting this up... unlike some of my other projects which seem to fall apart after a really good start.  
> Maybe it's all the math.
> 
> I do like math.
> 
> You know what else I like? The Teen Titans and their dysfunctional cornucopia of powers and personalities. So this is an experiment I hope works out. I'll go over some things I want to point out at the end of each chapter.
> 
> Any Tag suggestions are welcome. I'm not too sure on which ones I need to put in here.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bad dreams...

_She didn’t remember being born, and most of her infancy is vague. Her mother’s wicked smile and deep red eyes, her father’s soft frowns and stilted laughter. It wasn’t until she was of age to join the academy when she’d realised how odd she was. Her magic had begun to manifest in ways unusual for the rest of their race. There seemed to be an element of chaos or unpredictability…_ **_bad luck_** _. In the comfort of their House, the second most powerful in this sector of the underdark, she’d never needed fear of the other Drow. In a class full of spiteful and cruelly raised children with skin much darker than her own soft grey… that was where she learned what it meant to be a “_ ** _Filthy Half-Blood_** _.”_

 

 _Their spite only worsened as her talent for magic and violence became clear to the upper crust of their underground metropolis. Every examination was passed with her miles ahead of the next student. She seemed adept at nearly everything they could throw at her. Obstacle courses were a breeze, and when they began adding vicious beasts and other feral underdark denizens it still posed little challenge for her acrobatic ability and harsh magic. Academic tests bored her senseless even after the junior examiners switched her papers out with their own much more difficult material. Even the branch members of her own House began to turn against her. “A_ **_mistake_** _.” they called her. “This is what comes when the favourites get their way. Blasted Moon Elf consorts and_ **_ill-bred catastrophes_** _.” She paid them no mind. Her mother told her not to concern herself with the opinions of the lower castes, and her father… He just smiled softly and told her to trust in her mother’s strength._

 

 _The night of the upheaval had been an eye-opener for her. Some of the lesser Houses, unsatisfied with the way her Grandmother was running things had sworn fealty to their direct rival. The Academy had been filled with the screams of her cousins. With her magic and might however, she escaped the bloodbath and ran home to find chaos and slaughter. All of their servants and slaves split apart and a trail of carnage that led to a horrific scene. Her mother, standing over her father with the family blade in his chest. His pink eyes caught her own just before the screaming redness fell over her. “_ ** _K’Mala_** _…_ **_no_** _…” The invading Drow, led by their second-eldest priestess, had found her in her parent’s room. A gibbering wreck sobbing between the corpses of her parents. “Oh good. I do so love it when they’re already_ **_broken_** _.”_

 

 _Her years of slavery to the woman who’d found her were… harsh. Whips that drank her blood and stung her mind. Degrading costumes and routines for her to play through like some sort of twisted jester. The rape was mitigated only slightly by her own powerful apathy to the outside world, apparently the priestesses of their spidery patron found her dead-eyed expression much more tempting to twist with pain, shame and violation. But like all amusements she soon wore as thin as her body and sanity and so after stumbling and bruising one of the eldest children she was sold to a travelling ‘Carnival’ of sorts. “Maybe you can find some use for this_ **_clumsy abomination_** _.”_

 

 _It was this second slavery that in some perverse manner offered her the ‘freedom’ to heal. The Carnival of Curiosities was run in tandem by a male Drow exile merchant and an Orc who still proudly wore the chains he’d broken when he’d killed his last masters. They sold themselves as a sort of freak show slash fighting pit. “Roll up, roll up, One and all! If you’re a fan of freaks and foundlings from the furthest reaches of the Underdark to the cruellest pits of the sunblighted surface then you’ll be sore to miss our Carnival of Curiosities. Music, Acrobatics, Rare Specimens from across the world and most glorious of all for those of a more physical nature - Can you best our magnificent marvel of muscle,_ **_Ugrain_** _?_ _!” Of course, the Drow, Serallis, had seen there was no point showcasing her unless she was well fed and kept. So she grew out from the last remnants of her elven puberty in relative peace and the time no longer spent being abused by her family’s murderers left her with time to try to heal her fractured mind._

 

 _It was an accident that the carnival had discovered her talent in a fight. They’d bought her because of her strange skin, eyes and hair and her flexible nature in the hopes that they could put on some exotic fey acrobatics show. When a Drow raiding party had tried to make light work of their carnival in a tunnel leagues and leagues from her home they’d found themselves summarily slaughtered by this grey-skinned half-blood. Ugrain, ever looking for a challenge had begged to put her in the ring. Asked her even… It had been almost ten years then that anyone had asked her if she had wanted anything. The tears didn’t last long and soon she was one of their opening acts. “K’Mala_ **_Luckless_** _, a maestro on both the ropes and in the ring. Think you’ve got what it takes to beat an exotic young Elf-girl fist to fist. Then my friends step up and find out if she’s as_ **_deadly as she is beautiful_** _!”_

 

_Her confidence swelled in the intervening years as she refined her muscle and technique and travelled with the carnival. Almost coming to forget she was still a slave… until she was sold one final time._

 

 _They had stopped in a surface trade town filled mostly with criminals and exiles. A hub for both the criminal empires of the overworld and the enormous subterranean metropolises of the Dwarves and Drow. His smile had unnerved her for some reason. As he’d watched and made bets both against her and her list of foes. Two days went by before he whispered something to Serallis and she’d been told to leave with this odd man with his tall hat and clean black silks. They were five miles from the town before he uttered some nonsense words and her slave collar vanished and he turned and exclaimed how lucky it was for her he’d decided to check out this ‘Carnival of Curiosities’. “Otherwise my dear… you might have burned with the_ **_rest of them_** _.” They had crested a hill and seen not only the town, but the carnival of slavers all ablaze with green fire. “The Society doesn’t tend to take prisoners. Ahahaha.”_

 

 _He’d seen promise in her though. In her raw unpolished magical talent and in the way she’d refused to kill any of her opponents. “Why?” he’d asked her. All she could do was look at her hands, 11 years after the fact and she could still see her mother’s dark blood splattered across her pale-grey skin. With no answer he still cheerfully proceeded to clean her with spells, conjure some clothes and they began their 2 year pilgrimage across the surface. He taught her how to cast magic that didn’t explode or fizzle or even kill. Taught her how to speak the languages of the surface besides the Elvish her father had whispered to her in her childhood. He taught her so much and so when the time came for him to return to his ‘Society’ and he asked her to trust him… she did. Without question. “My colleagues are somewhat extreme in their views, I can’t guarantee they’ll accept the darker half of your lineage my dear. So I’d like to ask if you’d let me lay you to sleep in a crystal barrier. Ahahaha,_ **_I’m sure it won’t take more than a decade to convince them_** _.”_

 

 _It wasn’t his fault. How was he to know the tragedies that awaited him in the future. She’d since read his final memoirs and his three regrets had been in order “My poor, dear-hearted Sindella, the sad and broken wreck of Gotham and that little_ **_luckless_ ** _Elf who I taught to smile.” It hadn’t helped the panic in the moment though when she was dragged from her slumber by a steel-haired woman who promised to take better care of her than her previous master. She still remembers her first words after what was apparently nearly 50 years spent trapped in stasis. “Am I a slave again?” The older woman decried that no, she was not a slave. Rather a potential student. Perhaps even a second in command one day “...For the glory of the_ **_HIVE_** _._ _”_

 

 _That was the beginning of her slide into what quickly became villainy. A mercenary academy was how the Headmistress had put it and for the first few years it was indeed that. She studied under some of the most infamous sellswords and bounty hunters and was awarded a minor crew of ‘Counter-adventurers’ to manage for her efforts. Baran and Mikron became something akin to little brothers to her and the three of them quickly became pests, rivals even, to a nearby crew of noble-hearted adventurers. She was even given a codename that reflected her unlucky nature._ **_Jinx_** _… Then it changed. The Headmistress was replaced by_ **_him_** _. The new_ **_Headmaster_ ** _wasn’t just interested in being a nuisance to the existing adventure guilds and in the short space of a year_ **_he_ ** _added to her team two dangerous megalomaniacs in Simon and Selinda and…_

 

She twitched violently in her sleep and curled in on herself as the memories manifested in her shattered elfin trance.

 

 _She hadn’t realised how far she’d fallen until after of course._ **_His_ ** _words had been like honey in her ears. Sweet and sticky and liable to clog any attempts to reach her in the depths of depravity that she sank to. Though_ **_he_ ** _never managed to make her directly murder anyone it had come close with the otherworlder Sorceress from the Guild Titanique on several occasions. Their little spell-slinging matches turning into bloody, furious brawls under_ **_his_ ** _influence. And then…_ **_he_ ** _had found her mother’s blade somehow._ **_He_ ** _had called her into_ **_his_ ** _inner sanctum to instruct her on how to bind its ancient abyssal magic to a master in order to enhance her own skills and sorcery._

 

_It was all a farce._

 

 _She’d been a pawn in bringing forth a portion of_ **_Scath_ ** _and in the heat of a melee with the grey-skinned Tiefling girl… had cut her with the corrupted sickle._

 

_It hadn’t ended well._

 

Jinx began to sob as she twisted.

 

 _Unbeknownst to any of them at the time except for_ **_him_** _. Raven’s demonic progenitor and K’Mala’s apparent patron got all he needed to break through the borders of their world and their entire continent had devolved into utter chaos. Every non-magic user and a few besides was turned to stone and most everyone else was left to defend themselves against a ravenous horde of abyssal monsters. In the middle of this_ **_Blood_ ** _had tried desperately to kill the Guild of young adventurers who banded together to save their ‘sister’ and the world from his machinations. She’d been distraught and overwhelmed by the sheer volume of magical feedback coming through the blade. Once again her mind had shattered as had_ **_his_ ** _hold over her and when Raven had banished her ‘father’ from all time and space and the miasma cleared she had turned to_ **_Blood_ ** _and attacked him in a blind rage._

 

_She didn’t remember dying exactly._

 

_What she remembered was the warmth and four white eyes begging her to come back._

 

 _“It wouldn’t be any fun without you_ **_Lucky_** _.”_

 

 _She’d left everything after that. Trying in vain to put her mind back together, an almost impossible task for an Elf who couldn’t trance without abominable nightmares or the sly mockery of some haughty moon god. Especially one as recognisable and infamous as her. Turned out of townships as soon as some holier-than-thou knight came riding through, forced to watch over her shoulder for the former comrades she ‘betrayed’ in her exodus. Always alert for the soft tickle in her head that meant someone was peering through her memories, ready to snap at the slighte-_ **_THERE!!!!!_ **

 

Jinx’s pink, catlike eyes shot open at the familiar sensation and quickly spotted a vague shadowy shape. She moved immediately into a feral crouch and dragged her right hand from beneath her ratty pillow through the air, summoning pure chaotic energy into a crackling, multi-coloured orb. She muttered her spell as she went and pushed her own pink, unstable aura into the bolt. It flashed with her eyes and careened across the room with a discordant noise and hit her apparent assailant with… a whole lot more force than she’d initially expected.

 

“ _GYAARGH!_ ” A feminine scream shattered the air right before the fuchsia bolt and it’s shadowy target shattered the wall of the shack she was squatting in. The scream had been… particularly familiar.

 

Jinx paled and leapt off the bed to peer out into the starlight at the smoking form of her saviour.

 

“Raven!”

 

She rushed over to the prone Tiefling in a mild panic. “Are you okay? I didn’t mean to make it quite that strong. Chaos magic right, hehehe?” She nervously chuckled while hovering uselessly at her ex-rival’s side.

 

Raven for her part just blinked a few times before turning to catch the pink and panicked eyes of her ‘friend’ and in a flat tone muttered. “Ow.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So not much to say here.
> 
> Just getting a feel for Jinx's story so far while introducing the concept of Elven trances into the story. None of the rest of the characters I'll be focussing on are elves so I've only got K'Mala to work with.  
> On the name actually. Kamala is a popular name the fanbase gives to Jinx. pretty sure it means Lotus in Hindi (could be wrong, don't quote me) and is meant as a play on her colouring in the show and heritage in the comics. I just went with a classic D&D Drow naming trope which is "Apostrophes make everything more elfy". So her Trance.  
> There's lots of conflicting ideas and lore regarding the trance. Most of which is down to full-blooded Elves being able to 'sleep' for only four hours and remain alert during that whole time. During this rest period they experience, during their first century alive, memories of their past lives. Of adventures or works of art or even just 700ish years of jack shit, then as they get older they begin to experience their own memories in excruciating detail, with the occasional dream slipping in from the Feywilds and then eventually other living Elves' memories. The two exceptions to this rule are the Half-Elves and the Drow.  
> I made Jinx a half-elf purely for the stats they get working better with her metahuman nature. Technically though she is a full-blooded elf. Just one side is pure High Elf, the hoitiest and toitiest of elves, while the other half is Dark Elf, the evil and nasty (mostly) Drow. Drow are cursed elves whose trance is just... dead air. White noise for 4 hours. Half-Elves however need a full 8hrs of beddy bye in the game itself. How I translated this... Jinx can Trance, and as a Moon Elf (High Elves come in 2 to Many different types depending on systems) has access to her memory recall... it just plays as a glitchy, but crystal clear trauma montage, either that or she's subjected to nightmares from the Elven gods because she's not 'pure' and they'd rather she removed herself from the cycle and so she needs 8hrs of fitful, never quite enough sleep because well... her Trance is just a horrorshow.
> 
> Tried to tone it down a bit as I don't want to get too explicit with the details - which works narratively because Jinx herself didn't want to remember anything while she was in those awful situations and so there are huge chunks lost to her dissociative states over the years.
> 
> As for her age. Elves tend to physically mature around the 18-24 range, just like Humans, they don't really mentally grow up until they're about 100 though. Jinx is currently 79 years of age. That's minus the almost 50 years she spent trapped in a crystal stasis chamber made by Zatara. Yep. That was him and also a real spell you can learn in D&D. It's called Sequester, it's a 7th Level and it's amazing.
> 
> Anything else... do dee doo... Nope I think that's all. Any questions, leave 'em in the comments. They're open to all and I welcome all sorts.
> 
> Seriously though, while I've never had mean bitchy comments before. I'm so ready for them...
> 
> :3


	2. Chapter 1 - Ravens and Ramblings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Raven and her old friend discuss a problem that needs to be taken care of.

Raven had taken one look at the papers her old comrade had handed her before matching his piercing blue gaze with her own purple one.

 

“Really?” Her voice belied her suspicion.

 

“Really.” His flat tone implied that this wasn’t a joke. She sighed.

 

“How?” She picked up the piles of paper. Wanted posters of all of Jinx’s former comrades. Of course Jinx had one too, though her bounty was a mere 3,500 gold. Raven smirked, _not nearly enough to cover the cost of trying to capture her alive._ “I mean these bounties are triple hers and then some. What did they do?”

 

“ _Hers_?” He smirked and raised an eyebrow at her. Pretending to be curious about her referencing someone who had yet to be brought up in conversation. She flushed slightly and narrowed her eyes at his smug expression.

 

“Shut up,” she looked back to the posters and flicked through. _Baran the Bloody? Wanted for the destruction of Crown and Church property and for Heinous Murder. What?_ The mammoth of a Half-Orc had been terrifyingly strong that was for sure but a murderer, that was more his sister’s game. _Speaking of which… Selinda the Serpent. Where did they get these names? Wanted for multiple counts of murder, terrorism and defrauding the national currency… “Seriously_ _?_ Defrauding the currency?” Her oldest friend shrugged.

 

“It’s a serious crime.”

 

“It’s serious bullshit. Look at this.” She flapped the papers at him, “Mammoth is a murderer? Gizmo a terrorist… Okay maybe that one is mildly believable, but even so all this other nonsense is clearly out of character. Not to mention the ones for these scrub-out HIVE nuisances. ‘Wilhelm the Numerous’? ‘The Cyclops of St. Maure’? This is rubbish. The only real threats in here are Shimmer and her deranged boyfriend.”

 

“Look, I understand. I’ve laid a boot into most of them and you’re right.” He sighed and uncrossed his arms to pick up one of the few papers she’d left on their old briefing table. “Simon Jones though…” His dark brow furrowed and Raven could feel the revulsion coming off of him.

 

“Ricka-” He coughed loudly and shot an angry glance to the other person in the room, a green-haired girl with a sickly complexion and what looked like a modified jester’s outfit who seemed content to wander around their little gallery of trophies muttering to herself. She sighed and rolled her eyes. “ _Sir Nightwing_ … is it possible that someone has recruited or _influenced_ these, well, kids, into the more heinous side of our world? I mean they were never exactly paragons of goodness and light. It wouldn’t take much.” She thought of the pink and white haired Half-Drow who used to harass her into playful spell-fights and her dark turn under Blood’s control. She’d gone from mischievously malign to downright dangerous. _Though father’s tainted magic on her blade probably hadn’t helped either._

 

“But none of them were monsters either…” he finished her thoughts as usual. “Except him.” He spat that last thought as he tossed the paper with the grim face of Dr Simon, Psimon as Gar had teasingly referred to him once. _“Cos he’s like a psychic but his name is Simon… Get it?”_ She felt a pang at the absence of her fuzzy green friend. She looked back at ‘Nightwing’ with concern, he noticed. “He… he struck Blüdhaven with Shimmer the other week. Seventeen deaths at the Temple of Oa and another three civilians in a coma. For a belt.”

 

“Any significance to the artefact in question?” She asked, a little coldly as she shut off her empathic powers; his emotional response to that question had almost been too much anger for her to handle in her melancholic mood.

 

“Does it matter!” He slammed his fist against the table and yelled. Near the trophy wall, his new follower yelped and hid behind the nearest plinth. Raven sighed, trying her best to remain calm, knowing that responding in kind wouldn’t move the conversation anywhere pleasant.

 

“Don’t shout at me Rickard.” She said in a flat tone. “You’re smarter than that.” A warning which was heeded as her ex-compatriot took two deep breaths to calm himself. She watched his features relax and gave him a gentle smile in return. “It does in fact matter, because it will determine whether he has a plan we can anticipate and interrupt or if this was just one of his or Selinda’s psychotic flights of fancy.”

 

“You’re right.” He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “As usual.” He gave her another cheeky smirk, this one tinged with a tiredness he’d managed to hide from her so far. “How do you do that?” She matched his smirk.

 

“Same way you always know what someone’s about to say despite having no magical ability whatsoever.”

 

“Well, you’ve met my father.” He chuckled darkly.

 

“Mm… I could say the same to you.” At that they both shivered and looked back at the table and its spread of various magically or otherwise enhanced criminals.

 

“I can’t afford any time to go chasing them down,” he said in a defeated tone. “His Royal Highness has run off on another one of his dark crusades into the desert again. Which means I have to pick up the pieces and try to make sure his entire kingdom doesn’t fall to bloody pieces.”

 

“I’d help you myself but…” she left the implications hanging in the air. Nightwing clenched his jaw in response and nodded sombrely. It had been a year since her father’s attempted apocalypse and because of how instrumental she had been in his manifesting on the material plane as well as her new and strange divine magic in the aftermath she had very quickly become _persona non grata_ amongst the League affiliated nations. In fact she wasn’t entirely sure that some of the more overzealous heroes and adventurers wouldn’t straight up try to kill her on sight. Gotham and its territories were a relatively safe haven when its Lord was in residence, without the Dark Knight of Arkham there to belay his comrades though there was a good chance they’d seek her out for astounding violence she didn’t quite have the power to resist as yet.

 

“Well,” and his tone lightened somewhat. “Perhaps I can give you a solution to a few of your worries.” She looked up at him and saw his eyes sparkling with amusement and… something akin to determination. “You’d find out the reason behind these ridiculous bounties, help me by distracting and hopefully destroying that maniac _aaaand_ you’d get to check in on two of your favourite people in the whole wide world.” Her eyes narrowed at the implication.

 

“I don’t have any favourite people.” Her voice was edged, like a knife. The way he had to suppress the shiver that came made her grin inside a little. However Rickard Greysson was a hard person to intimidate, and the cheekiness he’d honed as a boy hadn’t left him as he’d matured.

 

“Are you sure?” He grinned. “Not even… _Her_ _?”_

 

“Tch.” _I knew he wouldn’t let that go_. She glared at him, without any actual malice but still enough to indicate she was going to get him back for this. “Who else?”

 

“Hmm?” His shit-eating grin didn’t leave his face, in fact it only got worse as he raised an eyebrow in faux curiosity.

 

“You said two.” Her power manifested briefly with her impatience and the torches around the table flickered. “Who’s the second.”

 

His grin died down to a grim-looking smile and he pulled a map out of his satchel. Raven reached out and grabbed it with a conjured hand of solid darkness, floating it across the table she saw it was a map of the southern portion of the continent. “That’s where he’s been the past year.” She gasped and snatched up the parchment. “Ever since _she_ woke up from her stony nap and they had their… words.”

 

“‘Words’ is how you describe an argument Nightwing,” she examined the small green circles her friend had apparently made to indicate their ex-companion’s last known locations. “They had what I’d conservatively call a ‘natural disaster’. Haaah.” She was sighing a lot today. “What do you want me to do?”

 

He looked pensive for a moment. “I’d like you to put together a team of mercenaries… preferably ones who can skirt the law without attracting the League’s attention. Jinx would be perfect as your point-woman. She’s highly intelligent and a proven and effective leader as well as deadly in combat as you can attest personally.” She hummed in response. “Gar would be an excellent point of contact between you and them as well, he’s an experienced tracker, fighter and knows the terrain and the both of them know the people involved personally. Tara…”

 

“Not sure if I can do that one.” She said with some harshness. She’d loved Tara like the rest of them, which had made her betrayal feel all the more personal, especially as she hadn’t been able to pick up on the signs. _She’s too good a liar… Slade-trained goes far it seems_. “I’ll gladly take any other suggestions though.”

 

“Haaa… Look Raven,” he messed about with the papers on the table until they were sitting in a distinct pattern. With the four most dangerous of the former HIVE members isolated from the rest. “As much as I respect Gar and Jinx’s abilities, they haven’t exactly been seeking challenges since the… _incident._ Just running from any serious fight and hiding from whatever their problems might be. The two of them alone aren’t enough to put these four out of commission, not to mention the fact that there might be something even more dangerous behind this new ferocity of theirs.” He picked Shimmer and Mammoth out of the group. “They’re perfectly capable of handling these two… but the others and whoever else might’ve joined in on the act?” He tapped the picture of the hyperactive Halfling gadgeteer. “For him especially you’ll need someone who can take a pounding and return it with twice the ferocity.”

 

“...I’ll need Markov.” She sighed and rubbed her temples to try to ease her oncoming headache, leaving the map, hanging in the air in her _umbral hand_. “Fine… Do you have an idea for Simon then? I’d be able to deal with him easily enough if pushed, but if I move too far away from here then the whole eastern side of your kingdom is going to be swarmed with heroes trying to slay the ‘Daughter of Trigon’.”

 

His grin in response to the question was fierce. She let her empathic powers swell up once again and felt the predatory glee and pride underneath as he said. “I have the perfect person in mind. I’ll have them meet you here in a weeks time. Will that be long enough for you to find the others?”

 

“Gar might take a bit longer…” she looked at him and then flicked her eyes away to study the girl in the corner of the room, now doing a handstand on their lounge suite. “I know exactly where Tara is. She hasn’t made a point of hiding.”

 

“And Jinx?” She could feel the smugness coming off of him.

 

“Mm… I know how to find her easily enough.” Raven felt like she’d given him enough of a leeway with his attitude and didn't feel like revealing her entire hand. Guild Titanique was no more, not that they’d parted on bad terms in any way… well at least Rickard, Raven and most of the others hadn’t. Tara and Gareth. _That’s a whole different kettle of cats._ “By the way,” she nodded towards the jester-girl. “Is she supposed to be doing that?”

 

“Hmm?” He turned and saw his apparent squire walking on her hands with one of Rickard’s oldest trophies between her feet. “OI! Duella, what did I tell you about doing that?” He yelled as he strode over towards the younger girl. She half yelped and nearly dropped the antique mask before deftly catching it with one hand. Raven was slightly impressed, an ordinary _-ish_ human supporting herself with one arm and both her feet hovering by her head. It would be more noteworthy if she hadn’t once seen her knightly friend there do a quadruple backflip off of a two story building and land perfectly before spin-kicking a zombie’s head off.

 

“Uh u-um… you said… um…” she seemed to be genuinely struggling with trying to remember as the experienced adventurer rounded on her. “I forgot. Teehee?” She smiled nervously and bumped the side of her head with her left slippered foot.

 

“Blindfold Duella.” He said, his voice stern while his words implied an even sillier method of travel. “You’ve gotta wear your blindfold if you’re gonna be doing acrobatics with breakables.”

 

“Oh yeah! Hnhnhn.” the green-haired girl giggled. “Sorry boss. Totally slipped me mind.”

 

“Yeah yeah, I’m sure. Also it’s ‘ _Sir_ ’ when we’re in public.” The girl, Duella, bent her feet to the ground and twisted upright, setting the mask aside and looking about with a confused expression.

 

“This is public?” Raven laughed despite herself and saw a manic grin stretch across the younger girl’s face, gleeful satisfaction radiating out of her at making someone laugh. “Ow!” Her purple-gloved hands rose to cover the spot her ‘boss’ had just flicked painfully hard.

 

“Don’t be a smartass.” He turned back towards Raven as his young charge turned away and muttered something along the lines of ‘well how come you always get to be one then?’. Raven chuckled again. _Okay, now I see why he’s got her around._ She reminded the Tiefling of how Rickard had been when they’d first met as teenagers, full of energy and cheeky jokes. _Colourful as well._ She gave her old friend a gentle knowing smile and watched with delight as he blushed slightly, even though she could feel the pride coming off him through their whole interaction.

 

“Well they do say we’re destined to follow in our parent’s footsteps.” Her smile took on a bit of her recent melancholy but didn’t disappear.

 

“Maybe…” He looked at her rather intensely. “I like to think we’ll do a much better job of it though.” He strode forward and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “I’ve got you as a perfect example after all, Miss Roth.”

 

Now it was Raven’s turn to blush. She placed her own pale grey hand over his and took comfort in the closeness for a moment, thankful he’d come to visit. Even if it had been with ulterior motives of having her hunt down some heinous criminals. “You’re most welcome Sir… _Robin_.” She whispered the last word, the name of his old alter ego and a relic of his first family. A name only very few were ever allowed to use. The cheeky smirk that touched his face for the remainder of their sentimental moment told her that the fun-loving boy she’d first gotten to know was still in there, tempering the hardened knight he’d grown into.

 

They stayed like that for nearly a minute, relishing in the comfort of nearly a decade of friendship before moving apart.

 

“Send your psychic countermeasure along in a fortnight. It’s going to take me at least that long to collect the others and get them ready for a fight again… particularly our green friend if he’s as far away as this map implies, you know how he hates to rush.”

 

“Understood.” He clicked his fingers at his squire and she rushed to his side, pulling out a small black chest from her backpack and presenting it to Raven. “This is to help persuade those who might otherwise be… obstinate about your request. It’ll help with any costs this mission entails as well.”

 

Raven peered at the container for a moment before lifting it out of the girl’s straining arms. “Is this where I think it’s from.”

 

Nightwing grinned. “Maybe.” She sighed.

 

“I’ll let you know when they move into your territories,” she looked him in the eyes once more. Violet holding the electric blue for what seemed an age before smiling. “Travel safe Sir Nightwing.” He bowed in response, his charge caught off guard and awkwardly mirroring his movements.

 

“And yourself, Your Grace.”

 

“Tch,” She dropped the chest on the table and rolled her eyes as he left with a small wave. His pale squire constantly looking back at her, curiosity coming off her in waves. **_He’ll leave you behind if you dally_** , Raven projected into her mind.

 

“Eep!” Startled, the girl bowed again and ran to chase her mentor, already gone from the room.

 

She walked to the open balcony of their bizarrely shaped keep. “ _Look, it pays to advertise folks, and if we’re gonna be the Titanique then a big ol’ T is where it's at right?_ ” She chuckled at the memory of her mechanically enhanced brother-in-arms. Always keen to design and build whatever popped into his head at the time, no matter how odd it seemed. There was a whinny from far below and two horses began to canter out onto the little isthmus, one black as pitch with speckles of starlight across its flanks and the other a somewhat otherworldly glowing grey. _Well I’m glad he’s getting some use out of my horse._ **_Ride well Balthazar_** , she called out with her telepathy before the creature could move beyond her range. Another whinny came from the grey beneath the girl and the Knight of Gotham turned up towards her before shouting his own steed into a run. As her visitors sped off towards the shore of the lake and into the bosom of civilisation once again Raven finally let her composure fold a little.

 

She sighed and brought her hands up across her chest to rub at her shoulders trying to quell the loneliness that suddenly swamped her again.

 

It was hard being the only one of your kind in the material plane sometimes. Sure, there were Tieflings scattered all across the world of Deter-Comme; some were even a part of the lauded Watchtower League… but none of them were quite like she was - they were infernally tainted humans, not some abyssal half-breed monster. They especially weren’t suddenly thrust into the role of Warden of their progenitor’s extra-dimensional prison, nor were they suddenly empowered with his position and domain amongst the depths of the Abyss.

 

“...if only they hadn’t all left.” She whispered to herself. Aware that for two of the guild at least, there had been no choice. **_You’re being selfish again_**. A voice that was hers and simultaneously not rang out in her mind. _I know._

 

 **_Do you need another session?_ **The question came with a burst of blue streaking through her black aura.

 

 _No, Wisdom… I’ll be fine for now._ She sent a wave of reassurance into her fractured emotional core. Aware that at least two of her other ‘selves’ would not be fooled by it one bit. _I have a job to do anyway._ She turned back to the table and manifested two of her shadowy tendrils to lift the chest from its surface. Victor had been very specific with the small fortune Rickard and Roy had foisted onto his shoulders for the construction of the tower and it’s surface was the perfect medium for a magic she had gained the power to perform only recently. _This apotheosis business is good for something at least._

 

She again conjured the shadowy hand to lift the map from the smooth, perfectly circular table and in one hand brought out the ancient Tome her patron and teacher, Archmage Azar had gifted her before her exodus from the Astral Plane. Its inky black and purple binding entranced her for a moment before the two locks keeping it secure came undone with a word. “ **Metrion**.” Ancient, magically fortified pages flipped as the book opened to lay flat in her palm. Runic script describing the manifestation of an arcane blade made of lightning and the appropriate somatic components were laid before her. _Wrong page._ She flicked through the book with her psionic powers before coming to rest on the incantation and other instructions for a spell of _Scrying_ . “Let’s see here. ‘ _One needs a focus of the utmost quality for the arcane sight to be received. A crystal orb, silver mirror or a font filled with holy water will all suffice. Though be sure they are master-crafted in their artistry, else the potent divining forces could shatter and cause a magical backlash._ ’ Huh?”

 

She looked at the table again. It was certainly a master-crafted item, no one but a master could have hewn obsidian into such a perfect circular shape. And as one solid piece of jet-black gemstone it was both a mirror and a crystal. A grin with just slightly too many fangs to be entirely comforting to most mortals crept across her face. _Check._ She turned back to the pages.

 

“Other specifications, ‘ _The caster is encouraged to have foreknowledge of the desired target. Especially as this is a spell that can be easily resisted if cast on an individual and familiarity with the subject can cause a comforting sensation that eases their resistance._ ’ Okay, that should be fine, next. ‘ _...for an even firmer connection with a sentient subject, something with psychic or emotive resonance with the individual is recommended_ ’...” Raven’s grin fell a little. Did she have anything belonging to either of her targets?

 

Gar had always lived out of his satchel… his quarters being mostly a place to stack refuse or house various stray animals he’d befriended. Half the time they’d lived in the tower together, the young Faunus hadn’t even bothered to sleep inside his own room. As for Jinx… **_You have ‘that’_ ** . A tinge of saffron flushed through her aura. _Knowledge?_

 

 **_You have the piece of her you kept for… whatever reason._ **Knowledge’s flat emotionless voice rang through her head followed by an image of something she’d tried to forget she even had. She cringed. Why had she taken that?

 

She reached beneath her cloak with her free hand and untied the black silken sash she wore around her midriff. Taking a second to turn away from the table and throw the circular sheet against a wall where it stuck. She reached in and thought about the macabre souvenir she’d collected when bringing the grey-skinned Elf back from the brink of death all those months ago. Her hand closed around the leathery string and as she pulled it back into reality what followed was a cord from which hung a spherical vial. Floating inside the alcoholic solution, still well preserved by either magic or alchemy; was half of a small, grey finger.

 

She looked at the digit with a bit of shame, tinged with revulsion and an odd curiosity. The spell she’d used to revive Jinx hadn’t been powerful enough to regrow or reattach the severed part, and in the long run, the Elven woman had simply shrugged it off, _“Nine fingers is better than dead I suppose.”_ Why Raven had felt the need to keep such a memento was beyond her. _Still it’s useful now, this will definitely provide ‘psychic or emotive resonance’. And we can examine my propensity toward keeping body parts when this is done._

 

She turned back to the table and hummed as she finished her mental preparations for the scrying spell. The table was spotless and unburdened by any paper or other things - her _umbral hand_ and shadowy tendrils scooping everything into her extra-dimensional storage while she prepared her mind for what was about to happen…

 

“ _Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos. Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos. Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos._ ” The chant her mentor had taught a young Tiefling begging for a modicum of control. “ _Azarath… Metrion… Zinthos…_ ” Her breathing became ragged as the Orb in her forehead glowed red hot with the effort that was required of her. “ _Azarath… M-metrion… nnnnnngh…_ **_ZINTHOS!_ **” The final word screamed in pain as all four of her eyes opened and flashed between dark crimson and incandescent white. Her aura burst into visible light and stormed about the room, looking for any space to fill with blooming radiance. Anyone watching from the lake's shore would see something akin to a lighthouse bloom atop the giant marble T before it died down not a moment later.

 

“Haaaah,” Raven was on her knees, panting from the ordeal she’d just put herself through. As she slowed her breathing back to normal and felt as she usually did tapping into her newfound divinity. As though she’d become twice what she was. A small chuckle left her lips and quickly devolved into a giggling fit. It took a moment to calm down, _right… I always forget the rest of you aren’t separate anymore._ **_Hehehehehe_ ** _, my apologies for the pain,_ **_it is understandable though_** _,_ _yes_ _. I promise we’ll all be apart again after I use the…_ **_Big spell_** _?_ _How_ _romantic_ _._ She frowned. It was not easy to have all of her emotional foci concentrated in one mindspace after nearly two decades of them spent apart. **_You realise of course that even with this bump in power, we’re not quite strong enough to manage the magical transference about to take place_** _? What she said… what we said? Ugh! This is soooooooooo confusing._ **_Hehehehehe, I like it!_ **

 

“Shush!” She shouted, bringing quiet to her thoughts and feelings. Her Tome lay open in front of her, the cord attached to the preserved pinkie still clenched in her right hand. “I’ll be using the Orb, even if it will knock me out for a few hours. I need to find at least one of them, so just… be quiet for now.” She sighed, feeling her gorge rise with red heat. “We’ll be apart again soon Anger… I promise.” A deep growl sounded out in the recesses of her imagination before her body cooled back to her normal, slightly chilly temperature. As she exhaled in relief a gout of steam passed her lips, proof of her fiendish lineage if ever she needed another.

 

She rose to her feet, picking up the book on her way and went to stand next to the table to perform the spell. Holding the finger out to hover over the crystalline surface, she began to tap into the power of the Orb the monks had placed in her head all those years ago when they split her consciousness into fractions. _“Gloomy little blackbird, split into nine. One for each hell and one left behind,”_ was the chant the children had tried to tease her with in the years before her self-imposed exile. She grinned grimly as hints of pink and red swirled in her shimmering white aura, Joy and Anger fighting for control in the wake of the memory while the rest of them combined held the spell in concentration. Focussing on reciting the words in the book and on the gem in her skull, soaked in Azar’s power. **_The spell needs our focus… all of it. And our memories of the one we’re trying to find…_ ** _Jinx._

 

_No._

 

_That wasn’t her name was it._

 

“ ** _K’Mala Luckless._** ”

 

Flashes of violent pink energies and mad, nervous laughter. The smile that always seemed a split-second from a predator’s snarl. The eyes, once piercing and daring… then after Blood… soft. Lost. _Where are you?_

 

The surface of the table crackled with multicoloured sparks and made a discordant screech that had Raven worrying if she’d picked the wrong medium to work the spell before-

 

Jinx was sitting in a tavern, rough black leather cloak around her shoulders and her four-fingered hand curled around a wooden tankard of something. Her hair was longer, and down - something Raven had never seen before. There was a soft song and some general pub chatter filtering strangely through the surface, she was struggling to work out what they were saying. None of it was clear. How was she supposed to figure out where this was if she couldn’t isolate the language? **_Races perhaps? What do most of the denizens of the bar look like?_** _Ooh, maybe the language, we’re good at that right?_ _Sometimes_ _…_ She adjusted the view slightly with some strain in her third - _fifth?_ \- eye. The scene shifted so that she could see the pink-haired Elf from the front, her cat’s eyes furrowed at something. **_Oh?_** But she shrugged and took another drink. Along the bar were some Tabaxi softly crooning along to the band of minstrels in the corner of the inn, all of whom looked vaguely Elvish. There were a few Gnomes and fair-featured Humans around the tables in the middle; most of the crowd however seemed to be Elves or their half-blooded kin. _Makes sense._ ** _Certainly it would be easiest to hide amongst her own kind._** _Hmmm_ _,_ _is_ _that_ _what_ _she’s_ _doing_ _? Seems more like she’s only stopping here on her way._ The ex-mercenary and mischief maker did seem to be slightly on edge and dressed in full travelling gear still. _Odd._

 

Jinx spoke softly to something behind Raven’s vision. In near-perfect elvish, “Can I get another of these and some food for the road, sir?”

 

“No need to call me sir, luv,” the unseen bartender replied, his voice distorted by the angle she’d picked to watch at. “If you can’t be casual with another halfie, who can ya relax around, eh?” Her elegant grey face pinched slightly at the ‘another halfie’ bit, but she nodded and popped two gold on the counter. A delicate, long-fingered hand reached from out of sight and dragged them forward before tossing five silver pieces back in their place. “Just road-rations or would you prefer some fruit in there as well?”

 

“No cheese or bread. Anything else is fine thank you.” She gave him a grim smile of thanks as she picked up her change.

 

“You sure? Cheese keeps good up here… bread not so much. But some good creamy cheese’ll take you a long way.”

 

“Maybe a long way to the privy,” she chuckled before draining her mug and passing it over to be refilled. “I’ve got a delicate stomach and can’t really afford the trouble if I want to make it to Istar before the next storm.” _Istar!_

 

“I see…” there was the sound of slightly carbonated liquid filling a container and the wooden vessel was planted back in front of Jinx. She nodded gratefully and the slightest hint of her fanged grin showed at the sight of the yellowish foam cresting over the top. Raven did her best to ignore the heat in her cheeks. “I’ll get you some apples and sausages then. They keep better than jerky in these climes. Taste better too.” He chuckled.

 

“Thank you.” There were the sounds of steps moving away from where her view was positioned. Jinx for her part simply began to knock back the drink with gusto, apparently in a hurry to leave when the music changed. One song ending and another starting up. Raven didn’t recognise the tune, having only been on this plane for just under a decade herself, her pink-haired ‘friend’ - _Can we call her a friend?_ **_Ooh ooh ooh, I do!_ ** _I’d_ _certainly_ _like_ _to_ _._ **_She was amicable when last we saw her, I don’t think friend is too much of a stretch._ **\- while she was distracted by all of her various personalities and emotions debating in one continuous voice rather than their usual dialogue she almost missed her former rival’s distraught expression over the music. The elvish words of the song seemed to be a jaunty, romantic tune about moonlight, but Jinx looked like she wanted to flee.

 

“Are you o-kay madame?” One of the Tabaxi, a lanky tortoiseshell, had sidled over with two empty glasses, perhaps aware the bartender would be approaching this pink and grey woman first and hoping for some conversation while they waited. She turned her wide cat-like eyes towards them.

 

“Wha-”

 

“You look a leetle dis-tressed?” They set the tumblers on the bar and opened their arms up in a flashy manner. “Sometheeng Tricksy Hot-Foot can help weeth, yes? I am very good at the talking of problems.” The pinkette looked a little perplexed and then smiled softly.

 

“No,” she raised her own drink towards him though in a show of reassurance. “I just haven’t heard this song for a very long time… Thank you though, M-mister?”

 

“Meester, yes.”

 

“Mister Hot-Foot,” she nodded at him. “Your offer would be much appreciated but I’ll be out on the road as soon as the man gets back with my food.” Tipping the tankard back to drain the rest of her drink, she clanked it down with a soft belch and wiped the foam from her lip. “Here, as condolence for not giving you a soul to help through their night or a story to share.” The five silver coins made their way back to the wooden countertop. His yellow-green eyes sparkled.

 

“Oh-ho. You are most kind!” He turned back towards his other two companions. “Thank thees lovely madame would you louts. She has just bought our next round.” The two other catfolk, one a calico with long, luxurious fur and the other a bulky looking specimen that reminded the Tiefling of a Lynx both turned toward their friend, then to Jinx and bowed slightly with smiles on their feline faces. “Thank you kindly.” “Jes, zank you.” She in kind nodded towards them as the footsteps from behind came back and a small canvas sack was placed in front of Raven’s line of sight, it was quickly moved off the bar and into a bag beneath the bar, which the Elven witch then lifted and slipped over her shoulder.

 

“Thank you kindly,” she nodded at the unseen bartender. Nodded again at the catfolk and turned towards a direction Raven presumed was the exit to the place. As her gaze slipped past the band, her left hand came up to feel at the choker she wore around her neck. Her pink eyes were out of sight at this point and it was just a moment’s hesitation before she spun on her heels and marched out of Raven’s vision. She sighed and let the spell fade away, along with the pressure on her skull from the Orb.

 

“Istar.” She took some time to drag a different map out of her shadow-pocket. This one of the far north-eastern quarter of the continent. _A five-day flight, with a few stops for sleep and meditation._ **_Minus the day we’ll be spending in recovery once we drop this form._ **“Mm, maybe…” She pulled the other map Rickard had given her with Gareth’s suspected locations and two more items from the hole before peeling it off the wall and tying it back around her waist. Laying all four on the table next to her Tome and Jinx’s severed digit. “Let’s see.”

 

She placed her map of the northern kingdoms, the finger and a faint yellow stone emblazoned with runes and a large black T to one side of her spellbook, while on the other side she placed the map of the southern wilds and a little onyx statuette of her namesake with four painted red eyes. She felt the satisfaction coming from her various other selves. This was a good plan, provided Tara didn’t make herself too hard to find. Though Raven anticipated no issues on that front, apparently the Genasi sorceress had been making a nuisance of herself as a unregulated bounty-hunter near the desert borders of Calicophornea, just 40 leagues west of here. _Barely even a detour._ ** _It’s almost half a day._** _Meanwhile…_ She picked up the Guild Sending Stone, with it she would have 25 words to relate a message, 24 if she didn’t include the codename key-phrase to make sure the message went to the right person. _What_ _money_ _can_ _buy_ _,_ _huh_ _?_ She scowled at the petty remark from her more envious personality, Courage.

 

“Sharpshooter…” she waited for the runes to flash to indicate it was recording before continuing. Counting out each word as she went. “Jinx is near Istar. Could you locate her, I need to discuss some work. Please don’t spook. She’s liable to magick you. Thank you. Blackbird.” Hopefully Roy would receive the message within the day and help her locate the demi-fugitive Elf. _As for Gar_ . She picked up the Raven bauble and whispered, “... _Poe._ ” Then she hurled it at the wall where it splashed like ink before phasing out of the wall as a big, four-eyed raven and flapped to her arm, looking at her expectantly. She sighed, another 25 words. Thankfully the Mejicuan Jungles were within two days flight from here for her odd… familiar… thing.

 

“Gar, I have something I need your help with. Please come home… It concerns the HIVE and their nasty little psychic… Also… I’ve missed you.” As soon as her message was done she flung her arm out towards the balcony and Poe soared out into the ever-darkening sky and veered south with a flash of its red eyes. It knew who to search for instinctively, being something of a part of her, but not at the same time. She’d never quite managed to work out where they came from but the little Raven-Stones seemed to just generate inside her shadow storage space every so often. They barely lasted more than two days themselves, but it shouldn’t be too hard for it to hone in on her green-skinned friend once it was nearby. Then she’d just have to wait for him to trudge back to the tower. Unfortunately he couldn’t fly indefinitely like her or the bird-shadow-demon… _Whatever it is._ He also preferred to walk along the ground anyway, something about feeling the earth between his toes being much more comforting than wind beneath his wings.

 

Finished with all of her requisite tasks, she was about to close her book when she realised the stone, finger, maps and chest were all still out in the open. She wasn’t particularly worried, being that anyone stupid enough to set foot in the Tower of the Titanique, now the abode of ‘The New Demon Queen’ would likely be someone she’d be fine with dropping over the edge of the balcony. **_However we are about to crash for twelve hours from fatigue._ ** _Yeah, a bit of extra security would probably help._ She sighed and flipped through the pages looking for an advanced alarm spell. She had the magic right now, she may as well put it to use. It took a few minutes to lay the groundwork around the vulnerable entry points and then, grabbing up the Sending Stone and the Elf pinkie and lifting the chest, with some effort, upon a floating disc of shadow she walked down the hall to her quarters to de-power and sleep.

 

She had a busy week ahead of her after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not much to say.
> 
> I just had a lot of fun writing this chapter. I've already laid the groundwork for the next one too, so that shouldn't be more than a week or so away. I dunno, too tired to keep writing right now, and I've got a whole bunch of other things in real life going on as well.  
> What a nuisance, eh?
> 
> Anyway. The reason I had fun with this one is I got to describe a whole bunch of fun items and spells... probably not the most I'll ever do in a chapter from here on out. But it was alot compared to the rather sedate, broken trip down memory lane that the prologue was.
> 
> Scrying... probably wouldn't work with a black, glass table. It'd be up to whoever is running the game at the time. But I found it a good way to use limited props so that I can expand the tower in whatever way I want later. And that Portable Hole... Real thing. Crazy. And yeah, you can actually just wrap it round your waist like that, because it just goes back to being cloth when you peel it off a surface.  
> Most of the other stuff was homebrew spells and features that I found perusing through various D&D websites while I was building the core cast... Raven needed a lot of adjustment even before I added in the whole 'White Raven' mode, which for anyone who's a gamey nerd like myself is just a mode that lets her literally double her levels for a short time, but each use needs a full tenday cooldown, a bit like a Divine Intervention feature. She can push it, but it's dangerous and each time she doesn't rest in between... well it wears on her physically and spiritually, which is bad for a whole buncha reasons.
> 
> The sending stones and the raven statue are modified versions of actual items in the game. Just reworked so that I can do what I need to with them.
> 
> As for Jinx... Yeah. We're going a bit weird on this one. I've always enjoyed her as a character. Her origins and power in the comics. Her personality and presence in the show. And the nuance she's been given through many various fan-interpretations of her... most of which I have read at some point haha.  
> So yeah. I'm looking forward to getting her in the driver's seat, but I've got some set up to do first.
> 
> Next chapter is the 'Stone' Cold Bitch herself. Lets hope I can do her justice.


End file.
